The Virginia Beach sheriff is suing the Department of Corrections for importing prisoners from other states while Virginia inmates are sitting in his jail instead of a state prison.

Sheriff Paul J. Lanteigne asked the Virginia Beach Circuit Court yesterday to order the department to take custody of 67 jail inmates who he says are required under state law to be in a state prison, not a local or regional jail.

Reached by phone, Lanteigne said yesterday that the jail's population is 1,479, but the jail is rated for only 889 inmates. "The jail is severely overcrowded," he said in papers filed yesterday.

Lanteigne said it costs the jail an average of $60 a day to house an inmate, while the state is paying the jail just $14 a day for the 67 who belong in state custody.

In general, state law requires felons convicted of crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 1995, and sentenced to more than a year, to be in the custody of the Department of Corrections within 60 days of the final sentencing order.

According to the Corrections Department, as of Friday, there were 1,799 such "out-of-compliance" inmates in local and regional jails across the state.

The Department of Corrections hopes to import as many as 1,000 inmates to help offset nearly $40 million in budget reductions over the next two fiscal years. There are 296 Wyoming inmates here in a contract that could be worth $18.5 million in the next two years.

"Without the revenue produced by out-of-state contracts, it could become necessary for the department to close currently operating facilities," Larry Traylor, spokesman for the department, said in an e-mail yesterday.

"This would result in both the loss of jobs as well as correctional beds," he wrote.

The problem is not as big as it once was. In the mid-1990s, there was a jail "backlog" population of 5,000. Virginia also has a history of importing inmates. Because too many new prisons were built when parole ended in 1995, the state briefly had surplus cell space.

In 2001, Virginia prisons held nearly 3,300 prisoners from other states and the District of Columbia. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2001, the state grossed roughly $78 million for housing them.

"We will continue to work with local and regional jails to bring state responsible inmates into [the department's] custody as beds are available," Traylor said, "and, of course, we will be responding to those jails where emergencies may exist."

Gordon Hickey, spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, said yesterday that the governor supports the department's actions but that Kaine also supports efforts to settle the matter.
Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreen@timesdispatch.com.